A few words, photos, random thoughts shared with my family and friends. If anything you see here makes you laugh or touches you in some way, please leave a comment or send me an email so I know you are out there.

And climb the stairs to the beach...

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Guess what I did tonight? Kathy (Ed's sister) took me to a concert at the Cape Cod Melody tent for an early birthday present. We saw TAYLOR HICKS!!!!

For those of you who don't know, Taylor was last year's American Idol. The only contestant I have ever bothered to vote for and the only contestant I actually did a blog about. Go to my archived postings and find May 1, 2006-June 1, 206 and scroll down until you find May 4, 2006.

That blog was posted before he won later in May of 2006, but I knew he had that something special!

We weren't supposed to take any pictures, but I couldn't help myself and everyone else was taking them. I didn't get great pix, but I did get some. The sound system wasn't the best for this kind of band and the instruments drowned out his voice for a lot of the songs. He has such an appealing voice, it was too bad we couldn't hear him more clearly. It was very loud but certainly got us all up dancing and clapping. He has a very good band, with two drummers, a bass guitar and lead, keyboard and even one guy that played sax, tenor sax, flute and I don't know what else. I knew Taylor played the harmonica, but never knew he played guitar. He plays very well. Although he is only 29 years old, his audience was filled with middle aged women! There were people there of all ages, but many of them were my age. He does expend energy up there dancing, playing the guitar, the harmonica and singing his heart out. He never stands still and he didn't stop from the time he stepped onto the stage to the time he left it about an hour and a half later.

It was a wonderful birthday present. Thanks Kathy!

I am heading home to Tennessee on Tuesday and will post more of the pix from our cruise once I get back to my desktop computer.Have a great Monday!

Friday, June 08, 2007

My Dad turned 80 last Sunday. But we celebrated it for the whole week before. He and Inez took his four kids, Chuck, Becky, Cindy and I on a 7 day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean aboard an amazingly fabulous ship. It was a blast. Today's blog is the first in a series. I am heading off to the Cape tomorrow and my not have a chance to get around to the next posting until I return. So, stay tuned...

My handsome Dad. Can you believe he is 80?

The four siblings their spouses and Becky's gal pal, Janet all met in Miami at the airport hotel. Ed and I drove from Chattanooga and the others came from Mass, Connecticut and New Orleans.

Chuck's son Gabe and his wife Madelyn were there for a visit before we left on the cruise.

Madelyn's baby is coming at the end of July. Can't wait to meet the next member of the family.)

(Cindy and Steve weren't in this picture. They were visiting with Steve's Uncle Shelly and Aunt Helene who live in Ft. Lauderdale but were at the hotel in Miami for a visit. Uncle Shelly is a greeter at Port Miami for Royal Caribbean. We got to see him both leaving and returning. Isn't that the best job you can imagine? He works 3 days a week and gets to go on cruises all over the place for peanuts. What a perk! We had dinner with them that night and really enjoyed their company. Steve will have to send me a picture of him since I didn't get one for some reason.)

Our ship the Liberty of the Seas is the biggest on the sea and the newest. Saturday morning, we all headed for the Port of Miami.

Chuck and Monica took the shuttle. We fit the 6 of us here in Ed's truck. It was cozy. From left to right: Cindy, me, Ed, Becky, Steve and Janet.

Dad and Inez met us at the terminal. We were all so excited!

First stop, or maybe second was the Sky Bar. Here Cindy and I have the first of what turned out to be quite a few refreshing beverages! I especially liked one called Coco Loco.

Here is a view from the Sky Bar of some of the pool areas. There were 4 pool areas on the ship, including a water park for the kids and great big hot tubs cantilevered out over the ocean on the 11th deck. That was cool.Here is a shot of Becky and Janet's stateroom, before they separated the beds. Our cabin steward might have made some wrong assumptions at the beginning of the trip. We kept calling them the Lebanese couple for the rest of the week.

We all had a balcony outside of our rooms. It was very high up as we were on deck 8. But for some reason I didn't experience the fear of heights I usually do. Maybe it was the dramamine. Becky doesn't like this picture, but I love it. Here she looks down the side of the ship from her balcony toward our stateroom. She was sitting on her balcony doing her morning crossword! I think it's cute. This is the promenade. It was amazing to see all of this inside a ship. Shops, restaurants and a barber shop; they even had a pizza parlor and Ben and Jerry's and a coffee shop on this deck. I think a Champagne Bar, too. I didn't get photos of the ice skating rink or the many other clubs or the large theater. They put on a show every night from a comedian to a Cirque de Sole-like show. And one night there was an ice show. Can you believe that? Everything was just gorgeous and HUGE!

Here is a view of our ship on the left "parked" next to the Explorer of the Seas, another Royal Caribbean ship. The one on the right looks bigger from this angle, but our ship was 90 feet longer than theirs. This was taken at St. Maarten, I think.

This was in San Juan where we stopped for a few hours.

Here we are on the first of two formal nights. Front row: Monica, me, and Inez. 2nd row:Chuck, Ed and Dad. (can you believe he is 80?) Top row: Becky, Janet, Steve and Cindy. We have lots of pictures from that night and I will share them with you in a later blog.

The Lebanese Couple. One of the poses the photographer set up for Becky and Janet was so funny. I loved it! Janet called it her I Dream of Jeannie pose!

Dad and his kids.

We had a wonderful time. I loved spending all that time with my family and it was so much fun getting to know Janet better. She and Becky were childhood friends. Janet is a nurse and lives in New Orleans with her husband, Jimmy, who she left at home. We all laughed so much and boy did we ever eat!Our favorite late-night hangout was Olive or Twist. A quiet nightclub up on the 13th deck. Quiet music, a few cocktails and lots of laughs. It was a lot of fun.

It was especially great to spend a whole week with Dad who I don't get to see nearly enough. He and Inez stayed up with us to the wee hours of the morning a few times. By Friday, they were ready for a nap, but so were we all.

Like I said, I am heading out again tomorrow morning for 10 days on the Cape. I will follow up when I return with lots more pix.

Here are some Previews of Coming Attractions:

The four men on our second formal night. Aren't they a good looking bunch?

Ed surfs on the Flow Rider on a Boogie Board. Steve, Janet and Becky did it too. And I have photos!

Dad floats in the warm waters of Labadee, Haiti with assistance from Cindy and Monica. Inez hates that hat. He was irritated that his cigar went out. But he still had fun.St. Maarten was really fun...especially for Steve and Ed.